bjarashow
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Jul 13, 2006, 12:40 PM
Post #1 of 5
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Paul Henderson's letter & Responses 'Butt 2136
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At the heart of Paul Henderson's letter, I think we see a problem that has been spoken of for some time; he sport is shrinking. Blame it on ISAF, a National Governing Body (or several), Class Associations, Yacht Clubs, higher price for small boats compared to buying power of the average sailor, or other constraints on the average sailor's time and money (video games, cars, vacations, whatever). All of those are possible and contributing culprits, in part or in whole. The long and short of it is that there are fewer people sailing, especially smaller boats these days. In today's Scuttlebutt were some very good thoughts on the subject, I thouight. I did want to react to them in some way, and my response ended up too long to just send to the Editor in it's entirety.
We can't just wait for the next generation, as easy as that is to say, and we can't simply say 'we don't need no education' and ignore all authority, from ISAF on down. However, if an organization comes into being that is dedicated to the promotion of sailing on a local level, and if it exists as a resource first, for information, for advice, and for any help possible to bringing grass-roots sailing --- dinghy sailing --- to more prominence, then the ball will start rolling the right direction.
It's easy to become a 'pillar of the community' like those Ray Wulff mentioned, if you grow up in a place with lots of boats and racing. But for people on smaller lakes and out-of-the-way venues, it's much harder to know what to do to keep --- or start --- a successful local scene. We don't need another group to tell us what to do when we sail. Rather, we need a group that will facilitate lines of communication to get people who often sail competitively to bring out those who don't. We need the 'local legends' to not just help their own fleet perpetuate, but also to know where and how to help the next young growing fleet come along. We need a group that can lend a hand to some of the aging Class Associations like Blue Jay or Enterprise to continue to stay strong, especially on the local level.
This NAYRU should not be big, with lots of rules. It absolutely must be knowledgeable and in touch with everybody. It doesn't need to be upward looking, towards ISAF. It must instead be downward focused, looking at the grass-roots. It doesn't need to directly market to kids to get them into the sport. It just needs to talk to the individuals and sailing clubs on the local level, and give them ideas how to do it. As a clearinghouse for information, more will be learned about the best ways to keep people sailing and racing locally, and that will eventually translate upwards to more people traveling for events.
This NAYRU would need to be able to bring together clubs and people, classes and boatbuilders, towards one goal; getting more people into the sport. Right now each builder, each class, each club and each fleet does it's own work, and rarely is there collaboration or even communication from one to the next. The new organization must be able to open up these groups to each other, and find ways for them to work together for that common goal. It wouldn't need to sponsor events, just make sure than when events are sponsored, the organizers know how to get the word out. It wouldn't need to make rules, just be there to give advice on what rules tend to work for any given club, team, or locality. Eventually, a central terminal for sailing information would become more than the sum of its parts.
Ben Jarashow
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